An index of corporate financial performance
FY24 wrapped up with a modest recovery in global corporate financial performance in 4Q24, powered by growth in the Middle East and Asia. This was offset by declines in Europe, particularly in export-heavy economies affected by US tariffs.
The Biotechnology, Technology and Telecommunication sectors remain critical throughout 2024, contributing to the increasing trend of global zombie count.
Stay ahead with our latest data driven insights
Discover which countries and territories are performing among the best. Assess financial performance across sectors. Identify distressed companies. Compare your company’s financial performance against tens of thousands of public companies around the world. KPMG’s Financial Performance Index (FPI) is designed to be one of the clearest indices of corporate financial performance.
For investors, financiers, regulators and governments, the KPMG FPI seeks to provide insights into the relative strength and health of key markets and sectors. With millions of datapoints going back to 2017, these long-term trends can help you spot signs of improvement or impending distress.
Updated quarterly, this webpage allows you to interact with the data to analyze shifts, trends, and related opportunities. You will also find key highlights from the most recent quarter and a spotlight on fast-moving industry sectors.
- The US Federal Reserve's rate decisions significantly impact US and global economies, influencing loan costs, inflation and currency values. It remains to be seen how the recent US rate decision to maintain its federal fund rate at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, and now widely expected hiatus on rate decisions, will influence the financial performance of US interest rate sensitive companies globally.
- For the first time in 2024, the global FPI scores saw a marginal increase of 0.4 points to an FPI score of 88.1, following three quarters of consecutive decline. Argentina led the global rankings with an FPI score of 97.1, closely followed by Portugal with an FPI score of 97.0.
- The other top performing countries were largely based in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, with Peru, Taiwan and the UAE displaying positive momentum. Some European markets also performed well, such as Switzerland, France and Spain.
- At a regional level, Africa experienced the most significant increase (of 1.8 points to an FPI score of 92.1) followed by Oceania (1.5 points to an FPI score of 63.9). Asia and North America recorded similar increases in FPI scores while Europe observed a marginal decline of 1.4 points to an FPI score of 86.1.
- At a country level, 4 out of every 5 countries in our research recorded FPI scores of more than 85. Country like Singapore showed notable improvement in 4Q24, increasing by 5.5 points to an FPI score of 85.9.
- Most of the sectors reported FPI scores in the range of 85-95 points in the fourth quarter of 2024 with Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) (FPI score of 94.6) emerging at the top and Raw Materials and Natural Resources (FPI score of 76.8 points) at the bottom. Notably, for the first time in the year, none of the sectors recorded scores above 95 points.
- Surprisingly, there was also a notable increase in the number of Zombie companies (those that score an FPI of zero for more than three quarters), with numbers increasing from 1,353 to 1,477. Zombie companies accounted for approximately 4.1 percent of the total companies analyzed in the quarter.
- In the third quarter of 2024, global economic growth experienced a decline in regional financial performance, with the notable exception of Africa experiencing a slight improvement. Increased consumption in Asian markets helped maintain overall stability. However, developed economies, particularly Japan, encountered unforeseen slowdowns due to moderate consumption and supply chain disruptions, leading to a convergence in economic output worldwide.
- Portugal led the rankings with an FPI score of 96.2 in the third quarter of 2024. It was closely followed by Saudi Arabia, which an FPI score of 95.9.
- Countries and jurisdictions from Europe and South America region dominated the top 10. However, North America struggled in the third quarter of 2024, leading to a drop of 2.6 points from the previous quarter.
- Despite being in the bottom quartile, Australia and Hong Kong (SAR) achieved slight growth in their FPI scores, rising by 0.6 points to an FPI score of 60.7 and 1.9 points to an FPI score of 82.5, respectively, in the third quarter of 2024.Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) topped the sector charts, while the Raw Materials and Natural Resources sector saw the biggest decline, dropping by 3.0 points to an FPI score of 76.7.
- There was a notable increase in the number of Zombie companies, increasing from 1,162 to 1,353. These companies, scoring an FPI of zero for more than three quarters, accounted for approximately 3.2 percent of the total companies analyzed.
- Global economic growth experienced a slowdown due to persistent inflation, geopolitical tensions, and supply chain disruptions. This situation necessitated the normalization of monetary policies and international collaboration to address fiscal challenges and support sustained growth plans.
- In 2Q24, there was a slight decrease in corporate financial performance compared to the first quarter. South America emerged as one of the top-performing regions, achieving a KPMG FPI score of 90.9. In contrast, the Oceania region saw the most significant decrease, with FPI scores falling from 66.3 to 61.7 quarter-over-quarter.
- While in the bottom quartile, Canada delivered significant growth in FPI scores, increasing 5.2 points to an FPI score of 55.5 in 2Q24. However, Indonesia and Australia markets observed significant decline in the second quarter of 2024, dropping 4.2 points to an FPI score of 80.9 and 4.5 points to an FPI score of 60.1 respectively.
- Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Food and Beverage sectors stood out as the top performers, achieving the highest FPI scores. Conversely, Raw Materials and Natural Resources, along with Infrastructure and Real Estate, were the weakest performing sectors and the former notably witnessed a slight increase in FPI quarter-over-quarter, reaching an FPI score of 79.7 points.
Global performance
Having declined three quarters in a row from 1Q24 to 3Q24, global corporate financial performance improved in the 4Q24 and stood at an FPI score of 88.1.
Sector performance
The Agriculture and Husbandry sector displayed the most robust growth, led by the Agriculture Products sub-sector. This was followed by the Industrial Conglomerates and Financial Services sectors, primarily fueled by expansion in the Diversified Financials and Other Services sub-sector.
The Biotechnology sector fell to an FPI score of 83.6 in 4Q24, marking the steepest decline among all sectors. The FPI team closely monitors scores below 85 points, as they are deemed to be in distress. Movements in other sectors were relatively unremarkable.
Sector performance across regions
In the fourth quarter of 2024, different regions experienced varying performance in their sectors. Here is a breakdown of the regional comparisons:
- Africa: The Raw Materials and Natural Resources sector gained momentum, increasing its index score by 6.4 points to an FPI score of 92.9. Conversely, the Energy sector declined by 1.8 points to 90.7.
- Asia: The majority of the sectors within the Asian market grew, with Transportation and Logistics leading the way.
- South America: The Chemicals sector witnessed a significant decline of 11.9 points to an FPI score of 68.9 and remained the worst performing sector. The second lowest performing sector is Travel and Hospitality that saw a decline of 3.4 points to a FPI score of 61.9 in 4Q24.
- Europe: Europe’s Agriculture and Husbandry sector continued to be the top performing sector, along with the Packaging Products sector, both increasing their FPI scores to 97.0 and 95.0 respectively. As bottom movers, Travel and Hospitality and Raw Materials and Natural Resources sectors were the lowest performing sectors, both dropping to 82.0 and 85.4 respectively.
- North America: The Agriculture and Husbandry, and Industrial Conglomerates sectors observed significant increases to their FPI scores reaching 72.4 and 95.3 respectively. Meanwhile, the Biotechnology sector observed a significant decrease of 4.7 points to an FPI score of 74.4 in 4Q24, making it the lowest performing sector.
- Oceania: The Agriculture and Husbandry and Chemicals sectors grew significantly, reaching an FPI score of 91.7 and 78.7 respectively. However, Oceania also saw declines in multiple sectors, including Pharmaceuticals, Media and Entertainment, and Manufacturing.
Zombies
Zombies are companies close to default (scoring 0 on the KPMG FPI) for three or more consecutive quarters.
The number of zombies increased by a notable 9.2 percent in the most recent quarter. This has been a constant trend throughout 2024 starting at 845 in 1Q24 to 1,477 in 4Q24. The Raw Materials and Natural Resources sector, as well as Technology and Telecommunication sector, contributed the highest share of zombies with around 21.2 and 13.6 percent respectively, followed by Biotechnology with around 11.0 percent.
As the global economic growth is expected to be around 2.6 percent in 2025, the FPI team forecasts the zombie numbers to stabilize in 1Q25 and there is early indication it might even decrease.
What is the KPMG FPI?
The KPMG FPI distills a range of market and financial performance indicators into a single index covering nearly 40,000 public companies around the world.
The index scores companies on a scale of zero to 100, with zero indicating serious distress and 100 being best performing.
Since many companies tend to perform well for most of their lifespans, there is a natural bias towards a higher quartile score. As such, around 80 percent of the companies in our index score between 85 and 99.
As the KPMG FPI is a logit model, a drop below the average for a specific company can very quickly lead to an index score of zero.
When exploring this data, therefore, readers should consider:
- The absolute score (zero to 100)
- Comparisons across geographies
- Comparisons across sectors
- Relative performance against peers
- Trends over time
- Macro events which are driving trends and
Expected macro events which may affect future scores.
Read more about our methodology.
Want to see your company’s score?
To understand your company’s current index score, or to uncover deeper insights about specific markets or segments, contact your local KPMG member firm. KPMG’s global network of professionals have the data, sector and geographic experience to help you understand your score and tie it back to your business needs. Whether it is benchmarking, identifying targets, comparing sectors, or looking for trends over time, KPMG professionals can connect you to the information you need to capitalize on your opportunities. That is our business. Please contact us at in-fmkpmgfpi@kpmg.com to find out more.
Regional performance
Regional performance saw a moderately positive trend, with every region except for Europe growing in the fourth quarter of 2024. There were notable performances from Africa (up 1.8 points to an FPI score of 92.1), Oceania (up 1.5 points to an FPI score of 63.9) and North America (up 0.7 points to an FPI score of 81.8). However, despite this increase in financial performance, Oceania still lags considerably.
Country and territory performance: Year-over-year biggest gainers and losers
An analysis of the KPMG FPI country data shows that, year-on-year, the largest gains in KPMG FPI scores were experienced by companies headquartered in Singapore (5.7 points to an FPI score of 85.9), South Africa (4.4 points to an FPI score of 92.5) and Isreal (4.2 points to an FPI score of 91.7).
Year-over-year declines in FPI scores were experienced by companies headquartered in Canada (down 14.2 points to an FPI score of 41.2), Romania (down 14.1 points to an FPI score of 78.1), Belgium (down 10.1 points to an FPI score of 83.8) and Norway (down 9.2 points to an FPI score of 81.2).
Distressed countries and territories
Given the natural bias for the KPMG FPI to score well-performing companies at high levels (typically between 85 and 99), this index provides significant opportunity to spot distressed companies that fall outside of the normal range.
KPMG FPI is a unique index in that it combines, into a single result, both traditional market performance indicators together with company, country, and industry specific financial performance indicators. This allows KPMG FPI to identify why markets are behaving in a particular way and support its findings with data backed insights into what is causing the movement. It has also proven to identify insights earlier than traditional market indicators.
In 4Q24, the KPMG FPI found 1,671 companies with a KPMG FPI score of zero. The largest concentrations of zero-indexed companies were headquartered across the US (589), Canada (577), Australia (329) and Hong Kong (SAR) (189).
Please visit the Zombie section to know more about significant underperforming companies.
Methodology
The KPMG Financial Performance Index measures the financial health of individual companies. Based on an initial pool of more than 40,000 companies globally, KPMG FPI identifies those companies, sectors, regions, countries, and territories that are performing well and those that are underperforming. A higher score on the KPMG FPI represents strong performance.
The KPMG FPI model draws from the Logit Probability to Financial Default model (developed by John Campbell, Jens Hilscher and Jan Szilagyi), which is based on eight explanatory variables encompassing financial and market variables, to arrive at the overall financial health of a company. The KPMG FPI is based on raw data from S&P Capital IQ database.
We release our insights publicly every quarter. However, the model can be run on any given day to reflect live market changes, so please reach out to your local KPMG member firm, or contact us at in-fmkpmgfpi@kpmg.com if you would like additional information.
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